<Begin Segment 43>

DG: Let's go on to talking about your joining the Jefferson club.

KS: Oh yes. When I first took up golf, I learned to play... and this was again, this was a YM sponsor, maybe it was a YW-sponsored golf class in Wellington Hills, which is way out near Woodinville. And so I learned to play golf with a group of Caucasian women. And after we got a little bit better on the golf course, we decided to go to the Jackson Golf Course and play golf. And while we were there, there was a young lady named Jean Boucher and she said, "Oh, you girls play pretty good golf, why don't you join our club?" And they're just starting, "We're just starting a new club at Jackson, we'd be happy to have you." So we all went the next Thursday and joined the club at Jackson. After I had been there for about a year, in the meantime I had heard about quite a few Japanese women that wanted to play golf and start a golf club. And so I joined those Japanese women and I told them about my joining Jackson and learning the mechanics of putting a club together and how to run a tournament and things like that. So I started, helped start the Tokiwa Women's Golf Club in Seattle. And...

TS: At Jefferson.

KS: And, well, its home course really was not Jefferson at that time, but the, the golf pro at Jefferson helped us so that's how Tokiwa got started and...

DG: Where'd that name come from?

KS: Tokiwa's named evergreen and the Japanese women who dreamed it up thought it was good and everybody voted on it. It was just one of those things that... anyway so the Japanese women played in the Tokiwa Golf Club for oh, I would say at least ten years and I was the only member of Tokiwa that belonged to...

DG: Was this in the '70s?

KS: Yeah, it's in the '70s. Six, about the middle of '60s and '70s. And I played at Jackson with the Jackson gals and I used to play at Cedar Crest, but I had an accident and broke my leg and it got so I just couldn't climb the hills at Cedar Crest, so... and in those days, I used to play two and three times a week and it was getting to the point where if you didn't join a club, it was hard to play golf. You know, you had to get tee off times and things like that. So I quit the club at Jefferson, I mean at Cedar Crest, and then joined the club at Jefferson and I didn't think anything of it. I just put my name in and (said), "I'd like to join your club and play golf on Tuesdays." No problem and I joined. Later on I found out that there were many Japanese girls that wanted to join the club at Jefferson, and the reason why they didn't ever join the club at Jefferson was because they thought Jefferson Club discriminated. They never had, they didn't have anybody else that was Japanese, Chinese or black that joined Jefferson. So they just figured well, they just discriminate. And I said no, they don't discriminate. They're happy to have me. And after I was a member there for a year or two, I got two or three other Japanese women to join and then after about three years of being there, I was president of their club. And so after I became president, then the girls in Tokiwa says well, if Kiyo's going to be president, then it must be okay. So then about half of the Tokiwa Club joined Jefferson. And they're all very happy there and it's close to their home, and that's where they should play golf. So the only thing I could say is that lots of times we imagine discrimination and it's not there. You just have to go and be your own self and I know I've been active in the golf organization and been tournament chairman for the Washington State Public Links organization and no trouble getting courses to accommodate all of us at any time. And it doesn't matter whether I was representing the Tokiwa group, or the whole State of Washington golfers. I think it all works out the same. I, I don't expect the discrimination, so I get very little of it, I guess.

DG: Did you join any other organizations, sports organizations or anything, other investment clubs or anything like that?

TS: Well, I was a member of Seattle First Hill Golf Club and the Puget Sound Golf Club. I was tournament chairman for the First Hill Golf Club.

<End Segment 43> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.